Star Fox: The Nemesis
by Arclight-Zero
Summary: Two years after the Anglar Blitz, Star Fox team is assigned a search-and-rescue mission. It may seem simple but this time, Fox and his crew are faced with an enemy that attacks not only their minds but also their souls. Can the team escape the Nemesis alive?


**Star Fox: The Nemesis**

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A/N: I like how there are some horror-themed Star Fox fanfics and personally, I think they are unique. But you know what else is unique? Sci-fi mixed with supernatural horror. Sadly, there're only a few supernatural horror games/movies that take place in space or on other worlds. Best examples are the game **Doom 3** and the movie **Event Horizon**. I cite these two as my primary inspirations for this Star Fox fanfic. I also credit **Warhammer 40k**'s idea of the horrors of the Warp as inspiration as well. I think with these inspirations, you already more or less know where my story will be heading. I've never actually tried writing horror stories so it may turn out cheesy so bear with me. Your reviews are greatly appreciated and if there are any mistakes, do point them out. I'm sure there're some grammatical errors that have slipped passed me. Feel free to alert me to them as well. Or if you feel like providing suggestions on what to add for future chapters or the best way to convey a horror scene, by all means, share your thoughts too. Other than that, enjoy the fic and have a pleasant and haunted day.

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_It was barely a whisper on the sensors, but there was something located at the far reaches of the Lylat System. Two years after the Anglar Blitz, the Great Fox was patrolling the asteroid belt for potential pirate activities when ROB picked up a faint distress signal coming from the outer edges of the Lylat System. Curious as to what it was, Fox McCloud had the Great Fox set course towards the source of the signal. What the crew of the Great Fox stumbled upon several days later would forever be etched into the darkest recesses of their minds._

**Prologue**

Her teammates were dead and she had only one shot left in her blaster. Adele Morrison was breathing hard and taking wild aims at non-existent targets she thought were lurking within the shadows. All around her, the results of pandemonium manifested as incessant blaring alarms, flickering lights, and frequent power drops that plunged the corridor into darkness. The young fox patted the breast pocket of her lab coat. She already knew she was out of ammunition yet she thought it was a mistake, as if it had been a dream all along. Not even her skirt pockets yielded anything useful save for a stick of gum and several shotgun shells. The shells would have been useful if it were not for the fact that she lost it during her escape from the Omega Complex.

Adele's dishevelled hair covered her eyes but she did not bother to comb it back up. Blood trickled from her nose and dripped on the floor like tears of red and she did not realise it. She gasped as another power failure engulfed the station and the corridor lights died. The red alarm klaxons continued to pulse, filling the area with red light. The mournful alarms echoed loudly like short bursts of wails that heralded an imminent doom. Adele was hyperventilating and she felt faint but the adrenaline in her kept her conscious throughout the ordeal and she eventually calmed herself enough to breathe normally again. It was getting difficult to breath and the portable data device, or PDD for short, she wore on her left wrist let out a shrill beep. It was warning her that the corridor was losing oxygen, most likely caused by a gap in the blast door that separated the corridor from the now airless Alpha Sector.

The PDD beeped, this time notifying her that she had received a message but Adele had no time to stop and read it. Running on high heels was too much for her so she removed them and ran barefooted with only the soles of her pantyhose serving as a thin barrier between her bare feet and the cold metal floor. When Adele approached the door, she noticed the light on both sides of the door were red.

Locked.

She activated the access terminal on the door and punched in the code to unlock it. To her dismay, the terminal flashed red and the voice of a monotonous woman said, "Access denied. Invalid password detected". Adele bared her teeth in anger and entered a different code. Again, the terminal announced that she had entered an invalid password. It was as if the station's commanding officer decided to pull off a sick joke and change the master password at the last minute.

"Open up damn you!" Adele shouted, her voice mixed with panic and frustration.

She banged on the door but it was one metre of solid steel. Not even a missile could blast through it. As the air within the corridor dropped to dangerous levels, Adele began gasping and coughing violently. She refused to die, not in this state and definitely not in this hellhole of a station. There was one shot left in her weapon and it was time to put it to good use. She pointed the weapon at the access terminal and pulled the trigger. The blaster shot struck the terminal and sparks flew from it, temporarily lighting up the immediate area. Since there was no use left for the blaster, Adele tossed it aside and proceeded to attempting to pry the door open. The more she exerted, the more breathless she became and the low air level was not helping her breathe easier. The door refused to budge though and she was wasting her breath.

Just when her mind was clouded with the prospect of death, the entire station rumbled and shook. Seconds later, Adele felt the gravity beneath her feet disappear, replaced by the weightlessness of space. Something had taken out the gravity generators. It made moving around a lot harder but zero gravity presented to her an opportunity to escape. Above the entrance was a vent and even though she had no idea about the ventilation system's layout, having a way out was better than dying of asphyxiation. Adele used her arms to 'swim' towards the vent hatch and she yanked it open.

The vents were just wide enough for her body to squeeze through. There were blast doors in the vents too and luckily for her, the required no password. With the push of a button in the middle of the door, it slid open silently and allowed Adele passage. The rush of fresh air was a relief for her and she sighed softly when the vent blast door behind her closed. Adele propelled herself down the dark and cramp vent by placing her hands on the sides of the vent and pushing herself forward. More than once, she ran straight into a dead end and she had to backtrack several times before she found a small LED sign that pointed towards the Hangar area.

At last, she found the Hangar but when she emerged from the vent, Adele let out a short gasp of horror. The entire place looked like the land of the damned. Glowing red pentagrams decorated the dull grey metal walls and the bodies of Cornerian guards were found pinned to the walls with their abdomens split open and entrails hung from them like grisly vines of flesh and blood. Their eyes were hidden behind blood-stained helmet visors and their tongues hung out from their gaping mouths. The alarm klaxons within the Hangar were offline but the place was lit up by an unnatural red light. Where it came from was a mystery but Adele wasn't about to find out.

Not far from the door that separated the Hangar from the corridor she was in earlier was a communications console. It struck her odd because it was impossible, especially when even the alarm klaxons were dark. There was no time to ponder. The Hangar was empty and there was no way off the station. She had to send a distress signal and pray the Cornerian Fleet would pick it up. She swam towards the console, pushing aside debris and bodies that got in her way. When she reached the console, her left hand grabbed onto the chair that was bolted to the floor while her right hand worked the console's keyboard. The master password worked for the console and granted her permission to use it. She activated the console's microphone and began constructing her message.

"This is Adele Morrison, lead researcher of Project Horizon. My life is in danger so I have to keep this short. I'm onboard the mega research and development station Nemesis, currently overrun with...with...creatures of unknown origin. I've managed to avoid them but it won't be long before they find me. There're still survivors dispersed throughout the station. Anybody, anybody from the army or any mercenary, if you pick up this message...I beg of you. Come...rescue us."

She sniffled a bit and a tears welled by the side of her eyes. They formed little blobs of liquid in zero gravity and floated about randomly. She was scared, she felt hopeless.

"I'm scared," she whispered. "The darkness hides many things...beware the darkness."

Before she could end her message, Adele heard airy whispers in the air that got gradually louder until all of a sudden, it stopped. The distant sirens seemed to silence as well and the red light in the Hangar dimmed. Her heart raced and she took shallow breaths. A growl was heard behind her and though she dared not turn around to see who or what it was, Adele had a feeling it was right behind her, waiting. She swallowed her saliva hard and added an extra line to the message.

"Help...me..."

* * *

Uneventful was an understatement.

The whole task of patrolling the asteroid belt was nothing but a waste of precious time. The Army had insisted that there were space pirates roaming about in the area but were not willing to dispatch any ship to do the dirty work. Naturally, they turned to Star Fox for help but Fox did not recall listing 'patrolling boring parts of space' as one of Star Fox's specialities. Still, he and his crew were mercenaries and they had no stable source of income. He could not afford to be picky. To pass the time, Fox and his crew members ran fight simulations to keep in shape. He could outfight Slippy and fought on equal grounds with Falco. However, Krystal was the one who gave him a good beating and she fought with impressive tenacity and grace.

Ever since the Anglar Blitz ended, Fox had spent most of the money earned to upgrade the Great Fox. The new Great Fox was basically a decommissioned assault carrier that was about as weak as a cardboard box. Many weapons and armour parts were stripped, leaving only a basic hull. With the victory money earned, he had the ship outfitted with more armour and weapons. He had some leftover money so Fox used it to buy a capital ship weapon called the Ultra Rail Driver. It was a new weapon manufactured by Space Dynamics, essentially a powerful railgun that fired a tungsten slug to ten times the speed of sound. He tested it on some asteroids and Fox was very pleased with the results. Lasers were fine and all but he always liked something a little flashier and the URD satisfied that.

It was a worthy purchase but on hindsight, he should have upgraded the generators as well. The URD drained power faster than the Great Fox's engine could generate, shutting the ship down for several seconds before powering back up again. Fox slapped himself mentally for thinking it through but it did not matter for the time being. It was not like the pirates had huge capital ships capable of taking on a fleet. Their fighters could easily be taken care of by the point defence laser blasters. Falco approved of the cannon but Krystal had chided Fox for buying something he had no need for.

Yes, all was well in Star Fox.

As the Great Fox approached a cluster of large asteroids, ROB called Fox to the command bridge. He was in the engineering room at that time, working on his blaster and attaching some add-ons to it. It was Slippy's favourite haunt but recently, it became Fox's as well. When not in the recreation room drinking his time away with Falco, he would be in the engineering room tinkering with small arms and his Arwing. ROB's announcement distracted him and he made an annoyed huffing sound. He stopped what he was doing and placed his blaster and screwdriver on the foldable metal table.

"What is it ROB?" Fox said while pressing a button on his earpiece.

"Unidentified signal detected coming from near the edge of the ice cloud. The signal is faint but it is a distress call," ROB answered.

Fox raised an eyebrow. "A distress call, coming from the ice cloud region? That is a long way away."

"The signal also contains the transmission code L33T-89001," ROB added.

"A Cornerian Army transmission code," Fox muttered and rubbed his furry chin thoughtfully. "What're they doing at the far edges of the system? Send a message to the rest of the crew, I'm gonna hold a meeting."

It took only a simple announcement over the ship's comm system to gather everyone at the bridge. By the time Fox reached the bridge, Falco was already there and he was seated in the captain's chair. Moments later, Krystal and Slippy joined up. Krystal's hair was dishevelled, as if she had just woke up from a nap. The three of them turned their attention towards Fox, waiting for him to brief them about what was going on.

Without wasting time, Fox said, "ROB informed me about a signal he picked up not too long ago originating from the ice cloud region."

"And let me guess, you wanna go check it out?" Falco interjected immediately.

Fox nodded his head. "Yes, that's why I called you all here so we can have a vote. I know we're currently on an assignment but...do you really want to sit around doing nothing? I mean, the day we've been given this assignment 'till today, there're no space pirate attacks."

"You can't just renege on an assignment. You'd be dishonouring the military...and Peppy," Krystal said while crossing her arms.

"That's where you're wrong, my dear Krystal. This will be reported to Peppy and at the same time, I'm asking him if we can switch assignments. We'd be investigating the signal than scouting for pirates," Fox remarked with a smile.

"Assuming Peppy allows it that is. I know he's the general of the army and all but I doubt he'll let us switch assignments whenever we like," Falco added casually.

"We won't know until we try," said Fox. "ROB, open a channel to headquarters."

ROB did a small nod and proceeded to typing something on the console. A beep followed and direct communication access was made with Peppy. The old hare responded quickly and the holo-screen came to life with his head floating above the holo-screen projector. He gave a warm smile to the crew.

"Fox, I'm wasn't expecting you. How can I help?" Peppy asked.

"I hope I'm not interrupting you in the middle of something, Peppy?"

"Eh, it's nothing too important. Paperwork's hell but someone has to do it. I assume you have something important to discuss with me?"

"It's regarding a distress signal we received not too long ago. It came from the edge of the Lylat system. Since it has the Cornerian military transmission code in it, we thought you might want to know about it."

Peppy pursed his lips and nodded his head. "Alright, play the signal. Let's see what's this all about."

Fox gestured towards ROB to replay the signal. It was a rather short one, about less than a minute but it was full of interference. They could hear the voice of a female talking but her whispering combined with airy whispers and throaty growls and cackles made the entire message near unfathomable. ROB had to filter the unwanted noises before they could hear the whole message. When the entire message was finished, the crew and Peppy were dumbfounded. Peppy frowned while Fox and Falco looked at each other with slightly gaping mouths. Krystal seemed worried while Slippy looked confused.

Peppy then adjusted his spectacles and said, "Send me a copy of the signal. I'm intrigued."

"ROB's on it," Fox said. "This Adele Morrison...is she some scientist working under the employ of the Cornerian military? How come we've never heard of the Nemesis?" he asked.

"I've never heard of the Nemesis either," Peppy muttered. He paused for a while to read the codes within the signal. "But there's no mistake that the military transmission code is in here. Nobody outside the army could possibly know about this. I know nothing about the Nemesis or this Project Horizon but I do know Adele Morrison."

He sent a profile of her to the Great Fox and the holo-screen projector projected her resume and details. A picture of Adele smiling softly appeared before the picture's size shrunk to reveal the resume's body. While the crew read the details themselves, Peppy decided to provide some additional information that were not in the resume.

"I've known Adele Morrison a while back, during the Aparoid Invasion. She's one of the scientists who worked on Beltino's self-destruct program, brilliant young vixen with a bright future too. Adele worked with Space Dynamics for a while before switching to Mako General Industries. In fact, you can credit Adele for the Ultra Rail Driver. She laid the foundation for its creation."

Falco gave a low whistle and said, "Wow, pretty young lass making big guns. I likey."

"She's done a lot at a rather young age. The last time I saw her was a year before the Anglar attack. Adele told me she was reassigned to work on a top secret project that could help turn the tide of war against future enemies. I never saw or heard from her since...until now."

"If that project involves darkness...maybe they're trying to manufacture some sort of black hole bomb?" Slippy suggested.

"That'd be foolish. Not even Andross would dare pull off such a research. He could easily destroy planets and there won't be anything for him to conquer. I don't know what she meant by 'the darkness' but her voice suggests fear. The station overrun by creatures of unknown origins...darkness...I would assume the project involves aliens that probably hide in the dark. Maybe some sort of stealth warrior that moves in the shadows."

"Assassins. The perfect way to take out targets no matter how big they are," Krystal said.

"A likely guess if I may say so. My guess is that the project went FUBAR and their little pets turned on them. Might want to bring a clean-up crew for this rescue mission," Falco remarked.

"But that doesn't make any sense," Fox interrupted. "She said unknown origins. If they were really training 'assassins', it wouldn't be unknown anymore."

The rest of the crew were silent for a few seconds and later muttered in agreement.

"I suppose you're right, Fox," Peppy said with a sigh. "Perhaps it's like the Aparoid scenario where the Nemesis was attacked by an outside alien force. If that is the case, I want to prevent another war from happening. We haven't fully recovered from the Anglar Blitz and there's no way we can attempt open war now."

"What about the disturbances present within the signal? We filtered them out but they...sounded like whispers and cackles," said Krystal.

"It's quite common really so I wouldn't worry about it too much," Peppy remarked. "Thank you, Fox, for updating me. We may not know anything about the project she's working on or about the Nemesis but what I do know is that we have to help those in need. You're on a military-contracted assignment right now, yes?"

"That's right," Fox replied with anticipation in his voice.

"I'm reassigning Star Fox for a search-and-rescue mission," Peppy said with an authoritative voice. "No doubt it'll be more interesting than patrolling a region full of rocks."

Falco chuckled and said, "You have no idea."

"Besides looking for survivors, I want you to do a few other things for me. I want details about the Nemesis and the projects that are going on in there. Research documents, station blueprints, personnel ID, anything important that you can get your hands on, you collect them and bring them back. I wanna know why I'm not informed of this."

"You can count on us, Peppy. We won't let you down," Fox said with a voice full of confidence.

"I know you won't, Fox," he said with a smile. "I trust you have all the necessary supplies for this mission?"

"We have restocked on ammunition and supplies five days ago. It will be adequate for this mission," ROB answered for Fox.

"Good, then I will only bid you good luck. Be careful out there, Fox, you're going into possibly uncharted territory and help will be very hard to come by. If you run into trouble, do not hesitate to ask help from the military."

"Will do, Peppy," Fox said with a salute.

The rest of the crew followed and Peppy returned the salute before the holo-screen blinked and went offline. Fox then started giving orders to ROB to set course towards the source of the distress signal. Within a few minutes, the Great Fox left the asteroid belt and was headed for the edge of the Lylat system. Despite the ship's advanced engines, it would take several days to reach their destination. It would be a boring trip but at least they were on a mission they preferred instead of looking to pick fights with petty pirates and marauders.

"I can't believe you actually pulled that off, Fox," Slippy said happily. "Now we're gonna do something that's worth doing!"

"See, I told you I can get us reassigned," Fox said to Falco with a smug grin.

"Alright, alright, you don't have to rub it in my face," Falco said while giving Fox a light shove. "We got the mission thanks to you. What else do you want, a cookie?"

"A cookie is nice but I can settle for a cupcake," Fox replied with a chuckle.

"Or you can settle for your girlfriend. She looks awfully anxious right now," Falco said while pointing at Krystal who was standing in front one of the command bridge's view ports.

Her back was facing Fox but Krystal's body was tense. She was clearly mulling over something. Fox approached her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. She gasped softly but was quick to calm down when she realised it was Fox. Krystal then placed a hand on Fox's right hand.

"Something worrying you, Krys?" Fox asked.

"Being frank, Fox, yes, something is worrying me," Krystal answered. "It's odd...ROB received the distress signal first but I'm only receiving the signal now. It should have occurred at the same time."

"And I reckon you're feeling something?"

Krystal nodded. "While the voice in the message conveyed fear...I'm feeling the actual emotions right now. It's...it's...like Adele is very, very afraid."

"I think we all know that already."

"You don't understand. I can feel the raw emotions coming to me. She's afraid of the dark, afraid of things that move within the shadows. It's not of this universe."

When she turned around to face Fox, he could see a grim expression on her face. Krystal was tensing up again and her eyes conveyed a sense of primal fear, no, outright terror.

"What do you mean 'out of this universe'?" Fox asked grimly.

"I'm not sure how to explain that. It's...very chaotic...sorry, I need to go sit down and think for a bit."

Without another word, Krystal left the command bridge. Falco looked at Fox and gave a 'what-was-that-all-about' gesture but his leader could only shrug. Not wanting to pursue the matter further, Fox decided to drop the topic from further discussion. While Falco and Slippy left the bridge, Fox settled down on the captain's chair and leaned right with his right hand supporting his head.

"ROB, play that message again. Rescan it for any static that you could decode using the SSTV decoder," Fox said.

"Yes," was ROB's only reply.

The signal was played several times over the bridge's speakers and while ROB scanned the signal, Fox listened intently to the message. Peppy had told them not to worry about the whispers and cackling, stating that they were merely signal disturbances. However, after listening to the signal several times, he thought he heard some whispers saying things like 'beyond', 'Corneria', and 'doom'. Coincidence? Fox thought otherwise. For a moment, he thought that someone was standing behind but when he turned around, there was nothing but an empty space between him and the bridge entrance.

"Huh...I'm spooking myself out," he said dryly.

"The scan is complete. There is a SSTV signal in it. Displaying picture now," ROB announced.

ROB activated the holo-screen and a picture started to load, line by line. It was an ancient and slow process but it worked when it came to sending emergency pictures. The army had sent reconnaissance pictures this way before to prevent the Venomians from knowing what they were. In their arrogance, they dismissed the noise as useless radio interference. If only they took a SSTV decoder and ran the static through it, they would find a lot of incriminating pictures about their plans. It was a smart move by the Cornerians and the Venomians were none the wiser.

Once the picture was completely loaded, it displayed a grainy picture of a young vixen holding onto a chair while her body levitated in zero gravity. Although the picture quality was terrible, Adele's face showed enough emotion to tell Fox that she was fearing for her life. There was something behind her though. It looked like a dark silhouette that almost blended perfectly with the darkness behind her. When Fox drew closer, the picture burst into static, briefly showing a red pentagram before returning back to normal. It startled Fox so much that he stumbled backwards and landed on the floor ass first. He got back up again and when he took a closer look at the picture, the silhouette was gone.

"That was...weird," Fox said to ROB. "Did you see that?"

"Yes and that was not supposed to happen nor was it part of the picture," ROB answered.

"I'm...sure it's nothing. Maybe the signal got corrupted on the way," Fox said in an attempt to convince himself to be rational. "I'm going to take a nap for a bit. Log any malfunctions or unusual activities within the ship. If they're serious, notify me immediately."

Without waiting for ROB to acknowledge, Fox left the robot all alone in the bridge.

_Oh, Fox McCloud, can your little motley crew ever be prepared against a changing force of darkness?_


End file.
